By Todor Tchervenkov For the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad 2007

Ancient Greek

Consider these phrases in Ancient Greek (in a Roman-based transcription) and their unordered English translations:

(A) ho t!n hyi!n dulos ____ (1) the donkey of the master

(B) hoi t!n dul!n cyrioi ____ (2) the brothers of the merchant

(C) hoi tu emporu adelphoi ____ (3) the merchants of the donkeys

(D) hoi t!n on!n emporoi ____ (4) the sons of the masters

(E) ho tu cyriu onos ____ (5) the slave of the sons

(F) ho tu oicu cyrios ____ (6) the masters of the slaves

(G) ho t!n adelph!n oicos ____ (7) the house of the brothers

(H) hoi t!n cyri!n hyioi ____ (8) the master of the house

1. Match the Ancient Greek phrase (A-H) with the corresponding English translation (1-8). 2. Translate into Ancient Greek:

a) the houses of the merchants

____________________________

b) the donkeys of the slave.

____________________________

Note: the letter ! stands for a long o.

Problem by Patrick Littell for the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad 2009

Japanese Braille

!

Brai l l e is a tactile writing system, based on a series of raised dots, that is widely used by the blind. It was invented in 1821 by Louis Braille to write French, but has since been adapted to many other languages. English, which uses the Roman alphabet just as French does, required very little adaptation, but languages that do not use the Roman alphabet, such as Japanese, Korean, or Chinese, are often organized in a very different manner!

To the right is a Japanese word written in the t en j i (“dot characters”) writing system. The large dots represent the raised bumps; the tiny dots represent empty positions.

karaoke "#$%

1. The following t en j i words represent atari , haiku, katana, kimono, koi , and sake . Which is which? You don’t need to know either Japanese or Braille to figure it out; you’ll find that the system is highly logical.

a. ________ &'(

b. ________ )%

c. ________ "*+

d. ________ ,-.

e. ________ /0

f. ________ 1*2

2. What are the following words?

a. ________ "#3 b. ________ 145

3. Write the following words in t en j i characters:

a. samurai ___________ b. miso ___________

Problem by Rachel Nordlinger for the Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad 2008

Data from Merrifield, W. et al (2003). Laboratory Manual for Morphology and Syntax, 7th edition. Dallas: SIL International.

Lalana Chinantec

Lalana Chinantec is a language spoken by approximately 10,000 people who live in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. In the following orthography a colon (:) marks a long vowel, and

the ! symbol marks a glottal stop (like the sound in the middle of uh-oh).

kalakwa: kw!: li:" The beautiful corn grew.

m!la#ö mo:h kya My pineapples have turned out well.

li:" kalane kw!: kwa: kya My tall corn yellowed beautifully.

#ö kalaro:h mo:h ne kya My yellow pineapples ripened well.

kala#ö kw!: The corn turned out well.

m!lakwa: kw!: The corn has grown.

Part 1. What does the word li:" mean? _______________________

Part 2. What does the word ro:h mean? _______________________ Part 3. Translate the following sentences into Lalana Chinantec:

a) The good pineapples became beautiful.

__________________________________________________

b) My ripe corn has yellowed well.

__________________________________________________

Part 4. Translate the following sentences into English:

a) m!laro:h kw!: ne

__________________________________________________

b) li:" kalakwa: kw!:

__________________________________________________

Problem by Dragomir Radev for the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad 2007

Molistic

Imagine that you have heard these sentences: Jane is molistic and slatty.

Jennifer is cluvious and brastic.

Molly and Kyle are slatty but danty.

The teacher is danty and cloovy.

Mary is blitty but cloovy.

Jeremiah is not only sloshful but also weasy.

Even though frumsy, Jim is sloshful.

Strungy and struffy, Diane was a pleasure to watch.

Easy though weasy, John is strungy.

Carla is blitty but struffy.

The salespeople were cluvious and not slatty.

1. Then which of the following would you be likely to hear?

____ a. Meredith is blitty and brastic.

____ b. The singer was not only molistic but also cluvious.

____ c. May found a dog that was danty but sloshful.

2. What quality or qualities would you be looking for in a person?

____ a. blitty

____ b. weasy

____ c. sloshful

____ d. frumsy

Problem by Pyotr Zubkov

Kazakh Several phrases have been translated into Kazakh (written in Roman script here), but the translations are given in random order. Some of the words are missing.

a. one and five ___ i. ______ ben elüw

b. one and eight ___ ii. bir men bes

c. three and two ___ iii. bir ______ segiz

d. four and seven ___ iv. elüw eki men on

e. seven and fifty ___ v. ______ men elüw

f. eight and fifty ___ vi. otız ben ______

g. thirteen and thirty ___ vii. tört pen !eti

h. thirty and two ___ viii. ü" ______ eki

i. fifty-two and ten ___ ix. on ü" pen otız

1. Match each phrase with its correct translation and supply the missing words. 2. Translate into Kazakh:

a. five and thirty-eight __________________________

b. ten and four __________________________

c. seven and fifty-three __________________________

d. thirty-eight and five __________________________

Note: i, ö, ü, ı are specific Kazakh vowels. The letter ! has the sound of s in the word usual.

Problem by Ivan Derzhanski

Taikyoku Sh!gi Japanese Chess (Sh!gi), played on a board of size 9 by 9 and with a total of 40 men, is the most popular intellectual game in contemporary Japan, where it entertains between 10 and 20 million people. But between the 8th and 18th century many other variants of the game were invented in that country, some on smaller and some on larger boards. The largest of all Japanese chess games (and generally the largest chess game in history) is Taikyoku Sh!gi (more or less “Ultimate Chess”), in which the board is of size 36 by 36 (or 1296 squares in all) and every player has in the beginning an army of 402 men of 208 different types. This is a table which contains the names of some of the men in Taikyoku Sh!gi (in Japanese and in English translation), as well as the name of the man to which each of them promotes upon reaching one of the farthest 11 ranks of the board.

Initial value Promoted value

1. ______ “Running Stag” ! honroku _______________

2. ______ _____________ ! t!sh! “Sword General”

3. gy"hei “Ox Soldier” ! _______ _______________

4. ______ “Right General” ! ugun _______________

5. ______ “Ox General” ! hongy" _______________

6. ky"hei “Bow Soldier” ! _______ “Bow General”

7. kisho “Wood General” ! _______ _______________

8. dohei “Crossbow Soldier” ! _______ _______________

9. ______ _____________ ! _______ “Dashing Horse”

10. ______ “Left Chariot” ! _______ _______________

11. ______ “Horse Soldier” ! s!ba _______________

12. s!y" “Running Bear” ! _______ “Dashing Bear”

13. tonsh! “Pig General” ! honton _______________

14. tessh! _____________ ! hakuz! “White Elephant”

15. ______ _____________ ! sagun “Left Army”

16. usha _____________ ! utessha “Right Iron Chariot”

17. ______ _____________ ! honr! “Dashing Wolf”

18. sekish! “Stone General” ! _______ “White Elephant”

1. Fill the gaps. Note: A bar above a vowel letter indicates length.

Problem by Anna Pazelskaya

Basque Numbers Several multiplications have been written out in Basque1. There are gaps in the last two lines. bi X bi = lau

bi X bost = hamar

bi X hamar = hogei

hiru X bost = hamabost

hiru X hamar = hogeita hamar

bost X bost = hogeita bost

bost X zazpi = hogeita hamabost

zazpi X bederatzi = hirurogeita hiru

zazpi X hamar = hirurogeita hamar

lau X bost = _________________

_________________ X hamar = laurogeita hamar

1. Fill in the gaps.

2. Write in figures:

a) laurogeita hamahiru = ____

b) hirurogei = ____

3. Write out in Basque:

a) 39 = _____________________

b) 77 = _____________________

c) 80 = _____________________

Note: The letter s has the sound of English sh, z of s, tz of ts in cats. The letter h is mute.

1 Basque is spoken by 500,000 to 600,000 people in France and Spain and by about 170,000 people in South America. It

has not been proven to be related to any other language.

Problem by Anna Pazelskaya

Basque This is the genealogical tree of a Basque family. The blanks spaces in the diagram stand for the names Ines, Kontxi, Felix, and Andres (listed here in no particular order).

Iker = Josepa Emilio = Miren

________ = Mikel ________ = Ibone _________

_________ Monika Manu Inma

Some of the relationships between the members of this family are described below in Basque:

Ines Mikelen emaztea da.

Monika Kontxiren ahizpa da.

Inma Manuren arreba da.

Iker Joseparen senarra da.

Mikel Felixen anaia da.

Andres Iboneren neba da.

Ibone eta Felix senar-emazteak dira.

Andres eta Ibone Emilioren seme-alabak dira.

Manu Iboneren semea da.

1. Identify the names that belong in the blank spaces in the diagram.

2. Is Kontxi male or female? Explain, using the data from the problem.

3. Fill in the gaps in the following Basque sentences (referring to the same family):

a) Kontxi __________________ ahizpa da.

b) Inma eta Manu Iboneren __________________ __________.

c) Ibone Andresen __________________ __________.

d) Manu Inmaren __________________ __________.

e) Kontxi Mikelen __________________ __________.

f) Emilio __________________ senarra da.

Note: Ibone, Ines, Inma, Josepa, Miren, and Monika are women’s names; Andres, Emilio, Felix, Iker, Manu, Mikel are men’s names. The letters s and x stand for sounds similar to English sh; z has the sound of English s, tx of English ch, j is a sound intermediate between g and y; h is mute.

Problem by Patrick Littell

for the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad 2008

Manam

Manam Pile (“Manam Talk”) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken on Manam Island off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Manam is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, and during violent eruptions the population must be evacuated to the mainland. Below, a Manam islander describes the relative locations of the houses above.

1. Onkau pera kana auta ieno, Kulu pera kana ilau ieno.

2. Mombwa pera kana ata ieno, Kulu pera kana awa ieno.

3. Tola pera kana auta ieno, Sala pera kana ilau ieno.

4. Sulung pera kana awa ieno, Tola pera kana ata ieno.

5. Sala pera kana awa ieno, Mombwa pera kana ata ieno.

6. Pita pera kana ilau ieno, Sulung pera kana auta ieno.

7. Sala pera kana awa ilau ieno, Onkau pera kana ata auta ieno.

8. Butokang pera kana awa auta ieno, Pita pera kana ata ilau ieno. 1. Onkau’s, Mombwa’s, and Kulu’s houses have already been located on the map above. Who lives in the other five houses? A: __________ B: __________ C: __________ D: __________ E: __________ 2. Arongo is building his new house in the location marked with an X. In three Manam Pile sentences like the ones above, describe the location of Arongo’s house in relation to the three closest houses.

5,928 ft.

N

Onkau

Kulu Mombwa

A

B C

D

E

Problem by Bozhidar Bozhanov

for the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad 2009

Guaraní

The following Guaraní verb forms are listed along with their English translations.

japyhyta We will be catching noñe'!i He is not talking

nohyvykõiri He is not enjoying okororõ He is crying

ombokapu He is shooting ndajajupirima We were not waking up

pemomaitei You are greeting ahyvykõima I was enjoying

ndokarumo'ãi He will not be eating añe'!ta I will be talking

ndapevo'oima You were not taking namomaiteiri I am not greeting

napekororõmo'ãi You will not be crying japurahei We are singing

1. Translate into English.

a) akaruma ___________________________________

b) ojupita ___________________________________

c) ndavo"omo'ãi ___________________________________

d) napekororõi ___________________________________

e) ndapyhyima ___________________________________

2. Translate into Guaraní. a) You are not shooting ___________________________________

b) He is not singing ___________________________________

c) We will be eating ___________________________________

d) I will not be singing ___________________________________

Notes: “you” is always plural in the sentences above. A squiggle over a vowel indicates that it is nasal (pronounced partly through the nose). The letter ñ is pronounced like the sound in the middle of “piñata” or “onion”. The letter y is pronounced like the “u” in “cut”. The letter j and the apostrophe (‘) are specific consonants. Guaraní is one of the official languages (along with Spanish) of Paraguay, where it is spoken by 94% of the population.

Problem by Patrick Littell for the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad 2008

Aymara Aymara is a South American language spoken by more then 2 million people in the area around Lake Titicaca, which, at 12,507 feet above sea level, is the highest navigable lake in the world. Among the speakers of Aymara are the Uros, a fishing people who live on artificial islands, woven from reeds, that float on the surface of Lake Titicaca. 1. Below, seven fishermen describe their catch. Who caught what?

a

b c

d

e f g

___ 1. “Mä hach’a challwawa challwataxa.”

___ 2. “Kimsa hach’a challwawa challwataxa.”

___ 3. “Mä challwa mä hach’a challwampiwa challwataxa.”

___ 4. “Mä hach’a challwa kimsa challwallampiwa challwataxa.”

___ 5. “Paya challwallawa challwataxa.”

___ 6. “Mä challwalla paya challwampiwa challwataxa.”

___ 7. “Kimsa challwa paya challwallampiwa challwataxa.” Also, watch out! One of the fishermen is lying. 2. Your daily catch is pictured below. Describe it in Aymara, and don’t lie! Note: ä is a long a; ll is pronounced as ly; x as the ch in Scottish loch. Some vowels transcribed here are deleted in actual speech.